Developer Not Lowering Windward Prices

November 17, 1990|By JEFFREY LOUDY Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — The developer of Windward Towers and the bank that financed construction of the second 17-story luxury condominium tower have decided not to lower prices to those suggested by the auctioneer who less than a week ago sold 20 of the remaining 70 units to high-bidders.

Richard MacDonald, sales manager for the towers, said Raintree Corp. of Columbia, S.C., which owns the building, and Signet bank, which financed construction, will not lower prices to the amounts the auctioneer suggested: $99,000 for two-bedroom condos now selling for as much as $155,000, $122,500 for three-bedroom units that sell for as much as $189,000, and $165,000 for three-bedroom units that sell for as much as $256,000.

The 20 condos sold at the Nov. 11 auction brought $2.2 million. At pre-auction prices, those units were worth $3.6 million.

The complex on the banks of the James River at the foot of the James River Bridge has 107 units in its north tower, and the auction results brought the number of units sold to 57. All the units in the 117-unit south tower, built two years ago, have been sold. All of the units in both towers have water views.

Ken Striplin, senior vice president of J.P. King Auction Co., of Gadsden, Ala., which conducted the auction, said he had a waiting list of more than 50 buyers willing to pay $86,000 for two-bedroom units and could sell the remaining 50 units in the tower almost immediately.

Two of the two-bedroom condos sold for $86,000 at the auction, but two more $86,000 bids were rejected.

Striplin said it was unrealistic to assume people would now buy those same units for the original asking prices. ``As a result, the buyers on our waiting list are going to look elsewhere,'' he said.

MacDonald said Raintree and Signet officials would be meeting in about two weeks to set a new price schedule for the luxury condominiums, but he would not speculate on what those prices would be. At pre-auction prices, it will take about two years to sell the remaining condos, MacDonald said.

``We were prepared to sell out, but not at those prices,'' he said of the auction.

Signet officials were not available for comment.

Raintree decided to auction the condos as a means of moving the remaining units quickly, MacDonald said. The company is not in trouble and does not have to unload the units, he said. The company made its decision based on the slow Peninsula real estate market, MacDonald said.

Home sales on the Peninsula are running almost 8 percent behind last year, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.

Almost 200 people registered as potential buyers at the auction held in the parking garage of the new north condo tower.

There were about 500 people at the auction. At the end of the auction, Jim Striplin, general manager of J.P. King, said he thought the prices set by the bidders were realistic for this real estate market. ``When you've got that many bidders, that's the market price,'' he said.